Day 1D - The 2006 WSOP Main EventHarrah's Releases Final Count For Main Event Field; Joe Hachem Begins His Title Defense |
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It's official. The numbers on the total field and first place cash prize for the 2006 World Series of Poker are in…almost.
With three first flights in the book and Day 1D half over, Harrah's released the final head count for the main event's field - 8,773 entrants.
So what about the money?
"We're probably looking at at least $11,500,000 for first place." WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said early on Day 1D. "It's unofficial, we won't know until the end of the day today, maybe tomorrow morning."
Until then, the 2,160 players participating on the final "day one" of the 2006 main event would have to settle with the simple fact that first place paid a lot of money.
The race for Day 2B started at noon PDT with $25-$50 blinds.
Defending champion Joe Hachem garnered the most attention coming into action, but he proved to be only one of six previous main event winners playing on Day 1D. The other former title holders included Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston (1972), Huck Seed (1996), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Chris Moneymaker (2003), and Johnny Chan (1987,1988) - the third, and final, 10-time bracelet winner to participate in the 2006 main event.
Being the player with the biggest bull's eye on his back made Hachem ripe for TV coverage, and he spent the entire day being filmed on the ESPN featured set. Card Player's Allyn Jaffrey Shulman also enjoyed some serious media exposure. She played one seat to the right of Hachem.
Shahram "Sean" Sheikhan gained some notoriety of his own, but for a completely different reason than Hachem. He became the first big-name pro eliminated from Day 1D. Sheikhan's pocket queens fell to an opponent's flopped set of nines, and he hit the rails 45 minutes into play.
Others notables to exit during early action included Erik Seidel, Amnon Filippi, WPT host Vince Van Patten, Erick Lindgren, Max Pescatori, and former boxing heavy-weight champion of the world Lennox Lewis.
If bad luck accounted for some of the day shift bustouts, then Chris Moneymaker had good luck to thank for reaching the 6:40 p.m. dinner break.
The card gods smiled on Moneymaker when he moved all in on a 9
6
3 flop. Ove Lerbrekk called with pocket sixes and had Moneymaker's pocket eights dominated. But the 8
turn gave the 2003 WSOP champion a set of eights, doubling his stack going into evening action.
Despite the win, Moneymaker failed to survive Day 1D, as did other former main event winners Johnny Chan and "Amarillo Slim" Preston.
A chip leader early on, Chan saw his stack dwindle with each passing level. Left with $1,650 he moved all in preflop but exited tournament play when his A 6 failed to improve against his opponent's pocket jacks.
Robert Varkonyi almost joined his fellow Gallery of Champions members, but rivered a straight to best Marcel Luske's flopped set of jacks. The hand cost Luske his tournament life, and brought Varkonyi's stack to $65,000.
At 3:05 a.m., PDT assistant tournament director Jack Effel called an end to the last "day one" of the 2006 main event. Early estimates put the remaining field at about 900 players.
The reigning champion's first step toward a title defense proved to be a success. Hachem not only survived action, he ended the day near the top of the leaderboard with $86,500.
Other notables who moved on to Day 2B include Joe Cassidy, Kassem "Freddy" Deeb, Robert Varkonyi, Huck Seed, Ted Forrest, Surinder Sunar, Kathy Liebert, Cyndy Violette, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, and Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken.
The big-name pros bounced from action during the day's six levels were Martin de Knijff, Scott Fischman, Alfredo "Toto" Leonidas, John D'Agostino, Isabelle Mercier, Joe Awada, Ram Vaswani, Victor Ramdin, Arnold Spee, Bill Edler, and 2006 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event winner David "Chip" Reese.
Final Day 1D chip counts can be found via the "Featured Chip Count" link on the CardPlayer.com home page.
The road to the final table continues with the 1,637 players from 1A and 1B returning at noon PDT for Day 2A.
The top five chip counts going into Day 2A are as follows:
1. Wesley Wilburn - $122,200
2. Ken Jacobs - $119,100
3. Paul McCaffrey - $110,650
4. John Kincaid - $107,500
5. John Fuhriman - $98,250
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos and for a new episode of "The Circuit."
For more information on bracelet winners and other WSOP news stories please visit http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.
Quote of the Day: "We've seen it all; we've done it all; we've heard it all." - Captain Tom Franklin explaining the advantages of being a veteran tournament player.
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